Richard Pryor... Here and Now (1983) on Netflix

R19831h 34mComedy Documentary

A comedian takes the stage in New Orleans, where the crowd heckles, cheers and goads him. He ribs the latecomers, and several in the audience walk up to the stage.

Netflix3.8/5
IMDb7.2/102,596 votes
Rotten Tomatoes86%

Trailer

Plot summary

Street interviews with the audience waiting to get into the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans are cut together with footage of Richard Pryor preparing to go onstage. It is part live performance, part documentary. Once he is out there, the set leans on the crowd. He ribs the latecomers. The audience heckles, cheers and goads him, and he usually manages to keep the upper hand, with several people walking up to the stage to interact with him in person. The topics are the ones he has covered in his previous live shows, and the language is as foul as ever.

Cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Richard Pryor... Here and Now (1983)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

The massive success of Live on the Sunset Strip in 1982 prompted Columbia Pictures to throw $40 million at Richard Pryor for a five-year production deal; he formed Indigo Productions and hired Jim Brown to run it.
Pryor and Jim Brown had history: when Brown ran out of money in the Philippines producing Pacific Inferno (1979), Pryor supplied the emergency funds to finish it, and after Pryor's 1980 suicide attempt Brown held his power of attorney.
Brown wanted Indigo Productions to replicate the eclectic output of Desilu with Black talent, but Pryor was largely disinterested and Here and Now was the only film the company produced before Brown was fired.